This section consecutively presents results pertaining to each of the five sets of system context variables, then an analysis of their impacts on drivers of the GCFRP CGR’s initiation.
4.1 The System Context
Resource Conditions
According to most respondents, the state of forest resources has significantly impacted the collaborative REDD + project in the HFZ. The HFZ covers approximately 70,053 square kilometers, and is an important biodiversity hotspot for conservation, but it also has enormous potential for REDD + projects to meet emission reduction targets (Government of Ghana, 2010, 2017; COCOBOD, 2020). It is also Ghana’s most productive agroecological zone for high-value cocoa cash-crop production, a significant source of foreign exchange for the country and a source of livelihood for millions of smallholder households (Government of Ghana, 2016). According to the respondents, there have been substantial rates of deforestation and land degradation over the years, and unsustainable smallholder farmers’ activities are the main drivers of deforestation in the zone. They also noted that increasing rates of deforestation in the HFZ have received significant national and international attention due to the intensification of climate change in the region, posing significant risks to many people in the forestry and cocoa sectors. For example, GA-01 stated that:
The single most important driver of deforestation in the HFZ is unsustainable farming practices driven by the expansion of cocoa production. Deforestation poses a significant danger to biodiversity and forest ecosystem services, and if we do not act to safeguard remaining forests and restore degraded ecosystems and their services, there will be fewer carbon sinks and therefore more emissions.
This quotation illustrates perceptions that the forest in the HFZ is deteriorating, with negative effects on the current and future provision of forest ecosystem service functions, including the region’s enormous forest carbon sequestration capacities and multiple actors’ socioeconomic benefits from forest resources. It also highlights views that REDD + projects can help to tackle, cost-effectively, high deforestation rates in the HFZ (illustrated in Fig. 2), reduce emissions, and promote sustainable development. Conversely, the respondents recognized that deforestation could exacerbate resource scarcity, by causing (inter alia) reductions in carbon stocks, timber supplies, clean water, and non-timber forest products, with negative impacts on diverse stakeholders, including local communities, governments, environmental organizations, and industries. The findings strongly indicate that the ‘resource conditions’ variable substantially influenced the establishment of the GCFRP and that the collaborative project emerged at least partly from a shared need to address the critical issue of increasing deforestation and associated resource scarcity.
Policy and Legal Frameworks
An analysis of the literature on Ghana’s REDD + policy process and early pilot project implementation efforts indicated the importance of international climate change and national forestry legislation for supporting REDD + projects in the HFZ (e.g., Asare, 2013; Asare and Kwakye, 2013; Asiyanbi et al., 2017; Den Besten et al., 2019; Johnson, 2021; Nukpezah and Alemagi, 2020). Ghana signed and ratified the Paris Agreement of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in September 2016 (Government of Ghana, 2016). According to the respondents, the collaborative project is consistent with Ghana's status as a signatory of the agreement, and their comments confirmed the significant impact of the legislative context in this case, as illustrated by EN-01:
Ghana’s REDD + strategy is rooted in favourable policy contexts, with key policies like the Paris Agreement, National Climate Change Policy and the National Forest and Wildlife Policy, which establish a strong foundation for multistakeholder collaboration on REDD+.
This demonstrates that Ghana’s REDD + Strategy, which underpins the establishment and implementation of the collaborative project, aligns with several important international climate change treaties, including the UNFCCC Paris Agreement. It also aligns with national forestry legislation, particularly the National Climate Change Policy (2013) and National Forest and Wildlife Policy (2012), which have provisions that promote cross-sector collaboration among relevant actors and sectors for REDD+, such as forestry and agriculture. The GCFRP collaborative effort is thus congruent with the global REDD + institutional architecture to combat deforestation and climate change through a multisectoral collaborative governance strategy.
Socioeconomic and Cultural Characteristics
In terms of socioeconomic and cultural characteristics, the document analysis revealed that the HFZ area is home to over twenty million people, 75% of Ghana’s population (Government of Ghana, 2018; Government of Ghana, 2019a; Proforest Ghana, 2021). Respondents indicated that many of these people live in rural communities with low levels of education and heavily depend on forest resources and subsistence agriculture. According to most respondents, deforestation and land degradation are challenging issues in the HFZ, affecting various natural resource users and management groups both economically and politically. The interviews with respondents of all stakeholder groups revealed that the livelihoods of most people residing in the region have heavily depended on agricultural intensification. However, widespread rural poverty causes people to rely on subsistence farming, with encroachment and clearance of forestland for expansion of cocoa cultivation to feed their families. The stakeholders’ expressions regarding the forest land use management system in the HFZ clearly reveal that socio-economic issues are highly relevant in this case, and strong enabling factors of the collaborative project’s initiation, as conveyed by EN-03:
We are interested in conserving our forests not just by preventing illegal logging, mining, and illicit agricultural expansion, but also in selling carbon credits and using the proceeds to improve forest management and alleviate rural poverty.
The interview reveals that multiple stakeholders are highly dependent on forest resources for their livelihood. Therefore, forests play crucial roles in livelihood diversification in the HFZ. Socioeconomic factors such as high population density, low education levels, and high poverty rates have significantly influenced deforestation and land degradation. Moreover, the government has limited resources to counter these problems. Thus, the findings of this study collectively underscore the importance of addressing socioeconomic factors to enable the success of REDD + projects. Many interviewees expressed a belief that to address these challenges effectively and ensure the long-term sustainability of REDD + projects, a collaborative approach is required that incorporates community engagement, poverty alleviation, preservation of forest resources, and measures to meet the socio-economic needs of impoverished communities that are highly resource-dependent.
Political Dynamics and Power Relations
Data from the interviews and document analysis revealed that unequal power relations have played important roles in shaping the emergence of collaborative governance in REDD + initiatives. Natural resource management in Ghana has had a checkered history, with cycles of centralization and decentralization (Asare, 2013; Asare and Kwakye, 2013; Interview EN-02). Under the British colonial authority, all forest resources in Ghana held in common by traditional authorities became the property of the state (Teye, 2011). This tendency continued in independent Ghana, with the Forestry Commission in charge of managing all forest reserves on behalf of the government (Teye, 2011). However, outside of designated reserves, forests are owned and managed by individual and community owners, while all off-reserve tree resources are legally vested in the state in trust for the owners. According to the respondents, this complicated structure of overlapping claims of rights between state forest departments and customary forms of forest ownership and tenure systems in Ghana has caused complex power relations between multiple actors who have vested interests in forest resources. Respondents expressed perceptions that interactions between social actors and their interests have influenced management outcomes through processes such as decision-making, compliance with rules and conventions, law enforcement, and forest practices. They raised three major aspects of political dynamics and power relations during the interviews: (i) the marginalization of local actors in decision-making; (ii) the elite power positions of politicians, traditional authorities, and timber and mining businesses; and (iii) a lack of resources to enforce laws and regulations, resulting in widespread corruption in the system. Most participants of all four stakeholder groups perceived that the lack of clear land tenure, corruption, and marginalization of local communities in decision-making processes have significantly contributed to the widespread crisis of deforestation and climate change in the HFZ, as illustrated by CSO-02:
The exclusion of local communities from forest management not only endangers the ecosystem but also damages these communities’ social fabric and cultural heritage.
The interviews highlight that several groups of actors in the HFZ who rely on forest resources are locked in competition for the economic benefits that accrue from the commercial exploitation of forest resources. Again, in such a competitive struggle for limited resources, these actors do not have equal power. The representatives of civil society organizations, environmental nongovernmental organizations, and the private sector reflected on the decreasing participation of local communities in forest land use decision-making processes. The findings of this study clearly indicate that the government and powerful groups have previously controlled the decision-making process and/or outcomes of forest management. Stakeholders from the private sector stressed that power imbalances are reflected in the legal frameworks governing forest management. Most of the interviewees mentioned that regulations often favor industry interests, which often leads to the exploitation of resources without consideration of the long-term impacts on local communities and ecosystems. All interviewees recognized the importance of addressing power inequalities and improving participatory decision-making by providing local communities with greater control over natural resources. The study revealed that political dynamics and power inequalities were other critical factors that have fostered a conducive environment for REDD + collaborative governance. An important element is a strong recognition by the government of the need for a collaborative approach and inclusivity to establish sustainable forest management practices that benefit all stakeholders and the environment.
History of Conflicts
The analysis revealed that the HFZ has hosted several REDD + pilot projects and their implementation has raised numerous issues associated with justice and histories of conflict. These contextual factors have engendered numerous disputes regarding land use between government agencies, private companies or REDD + promoters, and local populations. The findings indicate that contestation over land boundaries and both access to and utilization of forest resources is common in this area. According to the interviewees, these issues have posed major challenges in Ghana’s natural resource management and REDD + conservation programs. Many stated that these land-use conflicts have arisen as a result of a lack of clarity and land tenure insecurity, inequalities in benefit distribution, and constraints on access to and use of forest resources. The study also revealed that the exclusion of community members from genuine project participation, failure to meet local communities’ high project expectations, competing interests, and a lack of coordination between agencies’ regulation of the forest and cocoa sectors are key issues in Ghana’s REDD + processes. Respondents argued that local communities who act as custodians of forest land resources lacked clarity of land tenure, with overlapping claims of rights and limited influence in land-use issues, resulting in conflicts between local communities and outsiders claiming rights over their lands. These issues have resulted in a lack of local community motivation to participate in REDD + conservation projects. Respondents collectively emphasized the negative implications of conflicts for REDD + projects, but claimed that the Forestry Commission (responsible for forest management) and REDD + implementers lacked sufficient shared motivation and capacity to resolve the conflicts and address other forest management challenges, as explained by EN-02:
Tackling forest conflicts requires a form of collective effort if we can win the war against deforestation. It requires more than just political party manifestos and sweet slogans; they require proactive participation of both private and local community stakeholders.
This clearly illustrates perceptions that historical conflicts between multiple resource users and management groups in the HFZ have hampered the project’s implementation. Thus, to accelerate and scale up REDD + project implementation, a collaborative governance strategy emphasizing dialogue, communication, and transparent information-sharing among stakeholders, negotiation, and deliberative management practices is required in this context.
4.2 System Context Impacts on Collaboration Drivers
The analysis of the forest land use management system context summarized above reveals the presence of all four essential drivers of collaborative governance (uncertainty, interdependence, consequential incentives, and initiating leadership) in the focal case. The respondents particularly noted uncertainty in the shared economic and climate change risks (a primary reason for initiating the GCFRP in the HFZ). The findings revealed that HFZ areas are important for cocoa production and endowed with forest resources that could potentially retain more carbon and hence support REDD + implementation, but there are also high rates of deforestation in them. Hence, there is substantial uncertainty about the future provision of resources and the potential effects on many actors. CSO-01 explained this as follows:
Deforestation is a major driver of climate change but the intense competition for forest lands in the HFZ for diverse purposes puts its carbon reduction targets under threat.
This reveals a perceived risk of a scarcity of crucial forest resources for REDD + projects to meet their emission reduction targets and cocoa production, necessitating collaboration to identify ways to address the issue and reduce risks.
Interdependence, the second identified driver of collaboration, is closely intertwined with uncertainty. The findings revealed that the forests in the HFZ play vital roles in invaluable ecosystem services and sustaining cocoa production (the bedrock of the Ghanaian economy and rural livelihoods). However, unsustainable cocoa farming expansion by smallholders has threatened the functionality of forests in the HFZ. The uncertainty has necessitated multi-sectoral collaboration and interactions between the agriculture and forestry sectors when implementing REDD + activities, as explained by PS-01:
The long history of conflict between various government departments and local communities has resulted in more extensive and severe deforestation (…) Cocoa and deforestation are very complex issues that one organization cannot handle (…) We need to move from doing things in silos and form partnerships and do things together to make changes.
This shows that stakeholders recognize that resources and knowledge that no single actors, or specific groups of sectors, can access on their own are needed to address challenges facing the forestry and cocoa sectors. Hence, collaboration with other parties, including local communities, is needed to resolve associated governance challenges. In accordance with Zachrisson and Beland Lindahl (2013), the interviews illustrate that a weaker party usually initiates conflicts to enforce interdependence on a stronger party. The collaborative project might have emerged from a realization that parties need each other to achieve their goals. Furthermore, without adequate processes for resolving conflict at the local level, policies to tackle deforestation and climate change may reproduce power differentials, further marginalize some groups and fuel further conflict. The findings of this study confirm that while positive past experiences with cooperation are likely to foster support for future collaborative endeavors, longstanding conflicts can also act as motivators, particularly when stakeholders are out of options and recognize that collaboration is the only viable approach for addressing issues (Zachrisson et al., 2018).
Furthermore, the interdependence of forestry and cocoa interests in REDD + activities, as well as the uncertainty created by the high rate of deforestation and pressure on forest resources, has provided consequential incentives for actors to collaborate. Most interviewees recognized the significance of the consequential incentives in this case, which have allowed different parties to collaborate in REDD + implementation. They particularly recognized that poor socioeconomic conditions, power inequalities, and a long history of conflict are the primary causes of high deforestation rates, which negatively affect resource conditions and generate uncertainty. As a result, the collaborative project aligns with stakeholders’ shared interests in leveraging REDD + finance and other resources to address forestry and cocoa governance issues in the HFZ, thereby countering deforestation and promoting rural socio-economic development. EN-02 illustrated this as follows:
The GCFRP program aligns with these goals, providing incentives for reducing deforestation and emissions, tackling challenges in rural development and combating climate change.
The interviewee’s comments suggest that the collaborative project may have been partly driven by the parties’ perceptions of the benefits of addressing context-related problems. Perceived benefits include improvements in forest resource conditions, incentives for smallholder farmers to implement climate-smart cocoa production practices, and the sustainability of supply chains of agricultural commodities. Finally, the results show that effective facilitation and coordination by the Forestry Commission and COCOBOD’s played a key role that resulted in the establishment of the GCFRP, particularly by promoting the commitment of all interested parties to participate in the collaborative initiative, as illustrated by CSO-01:
The super fantastic commitment and environment created by the Forestry Commission and COCOBOD are the reasons it all happened. We had leaders in government, the specific people who were behind us. These were the types of personalities who were open to input, who were good leaders, and who were not holding territory. We needed sort of champions and we had a champion in the Forestry Commission and COCOBOD. They created an environment in which all these different stakeholders could come and so we had very good energy and relationships.
This interviewee’s comments clearly indicate the perceived importance of committed facilitative leadership in government, with a clear demonstration of shared commitment and willingness to create a conducive environment, for initiating the collaborative REDD + effort.